The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 4 eBook

meadows are under water. Lady Browne and I,
coming last Sunday night from Lady Blandford’s,
were in a piteous plight. The ferryboat was
turned round by the current, and carried to Isleworth.
Then we ran against the piers of our new bridge,
and the horses were frightened. Luckily, my
cicisbeo -was a Catholic, and screamed to so many
Saints, that some of them at the nearest alehouse
came and saved us, or I should have had no more gout,
or what I dreaded I should; for I concluded we should
be carried ashore somewhere, and be forced to wade
through the mud up to my middle. So you see
one may wrap oneself up in flannel and be in danger,
without visiting all the armies on the face of the
globe, and putting the immortality of one’s chaise
to the proof.

I am ashamed Of sending you three sides of smaller
paper in answer to seven large—­but what
can I do? I see nothing, know nothing, do nothing.
My castle is finished, I have nothing new to read,
I am tired of writing, I have no new or old bit for
my printer. I have only black hoods around me;
or, if I go to town, the family-party in Grosvenor
Street. One trait will give you a sample of
how I passed my time, and made me laugh, as it put
me in mind of you; at least it was a fit of absence,
much more likely to have happened to you than to me.
I was playing eighteenpenny tredrille with the Duchess
of Newcastle(131) and Lady Browne, and certainly not
much interested in the game. I cannot recollect
nor conceive what I was thinking of, but I pushed
the cards very gravely to the Duchess, and said, “Doctor,
you are to deal.” You may guess at their
astonishment, and how much it made us all laugh.
I wish it may make you smile a moment, or that I
had any thing better to send you. Adieu, most
affectionately. Yours ever.

(129) a Daughter of the Earl of Harrington.
Her ladyship was married, in 1776, to Thomas second
Lord Foley.-E.

(130) When Mr. Wilkes was elected.

(131) Catherine, eldest daughter and heiress of the
Right Hon. Henry Pelham, married to Henry ninth Earl
of Lincoln; who, in consequence of his marriage with
her, inherited in 1768, the dukedom of Newcastle-under-Line
on the demise of the Countess’s uncle, Thomas
Pelham Holles, Who had been created Duke of Newcastle.under-Line,
with special remainder to the Earl of Lincoln , in
1756 E.

Lady Ailesbury brings you this,(132) which is not
a letter, but a paper of direction, and the counterpart
of what I have written to Madame du Deffand.
I beg of you seriously to take a great deal of notice
of this dear old friend of mine. She will, perhaps,
expect more attention from you, as my friend, and
as it is her own nature a little, than will be quite
convenient to you: but you have an infinite deal
of patience and good-nature, and will excuse it.